Browsers usually display a single Web page. It is possible to have a browser display more than one Web page at a time. You do this by creating a special kind of Web page, called a frame layout document, that is divided into rectangular sections called frames. When you are editing frames in the frame layout document, you cannot add text, images, links, or other elements to them. Frames are simply containers that you use to display Web pages.

You can place as many frames in a frame layout document as you like and you can resize the frames and change their orientation. You can place a Web page that contains links in one frame and have the links open different Web pages in another frame.

Before you decide to use frames, be aware that they are a new feature of the Netscape extensions to HTML 3.0 and aren't supported on most browsers. Claris Home Page automatically adds an explanatory message to frame layout documents for viewers who use browsers that don't support frames.

When you open a frame layout document, Claris Home Page automatically opens it in Edit Frames mode. This is an additional mode available only when you are working with a frame layout document. To edit the message that appears in browsers that don't display frames, switch to Edit Page mode. To view the message, use Preview Page mode. To edit the HTML source code of the frame layout document directly, use Edit HTML Source mode.

Tip You can add a link to a non-frame version of your Web page to the message that appears in browsers that don't display frames.

Important The contents of frames are only visible when you preview your Web page in a browser. Many of the changes you make to frames won't appear until you save your frame layout document and the Web pages displayed in the frames.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Creating a frame layout document

When you first create a frame layout document, Claris Home Page opens a Frame Wizard to help you set up your frames. All of the Web pages you currently have open and have previously saved are listed in the Frame Wizard with an unselected checkbox next to them.

To create a frame layout document:

  1. Choose New from the File menu and then choose Frame Layout.

    The Frame Wizard appears.

  2. Click the checkbox next to each open Web page that you want to include in a frame.
  3. To include a Web page in a frame that isn't open right now, click Add File.

    An Open dialog box appears.

  4. Select the Web page file you want to include and click Open.

    The name of the file appears in the Frame Wizard list with a selected checkbox next to it.

  5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each additional file you want to appear in a frame.
  6. Choose Horizontal or Vertical from the Document Orientation pop-up menu to set the orientation of the frames.
  7. Click OK.

    The frame layout document appears with the initial configuration you specified.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Adding frames to a frame layout document

You can add horizontal frames, vertical frames, and frame lists (frames within a frame) to a frame layout document. You add frames to a frame layout document by splitting existing frames.

To split a frame into two horizontal frames, select the frame you want to split and choose Subdivide Vertically from the Frame menu or click the Subdivide Vertically button . The single frame is divided into two horizontal frames.

To split a frame into two vertical frames, select the frame you want to split and choose Subdivide Horizontally from the Frame menu or click the Subdivide Horizontally button . The single frame is divided into two vertical frames.

You can also add a new frame to a specific place in a frame layout document instead of dividing an existing frame. Select a frame and choose Add Frame from the Frame menu. An open dialog box appears so you can choose the Web page you want displayed in the new frame. If the frame you selected is a horizontal frame, the new horizontal frame is added above it. If the frame you selected is a vertical frame, the new vertical frame is added to the left of it.

If you want to add a frame without choosing a Web page to display in the frame, choose Add Blank Frame from the Frame menu.

To delete a frame, select the frame and press the Delete or Backspace key.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Creating frames within frames

If you want to have vertical frames and horizontal frames in the same frame layout document, you need to create frames within a frame. A frame that contains other frames is called a frame list, and has a different Object Editor than the frames inside it.

To create frames within a frame:

  1. Select the frame.
  2. If you want to split the frame into two horizontal frames, select Subdivide Vertically. If you want to split the frame into two vertical frames, select Subdivide Horizontally.
  3. Continue selecting Subdivide Vertically and Subdivide Horizontally to divide the frame any way you like.

Using the frame object editors

Once you have created a frame layout document and added frames to it, you can use the frame object editors to change the attributes of your frames.

You use the Frame Object Editor to name a frame, associate frames to Web pages, and apply other attributes to frames. You use the Frame List Editor to change the orientation and size of a frame list (a frame containing other frames).

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Using the Frame Object Editor

To open the Frame Object Editor, do one of the following:

To expand the Frame Object Editor to display more options, click the triangle or click the Both tab.

To apply the changes you make to a frame in the Frame Object Editor, press Tab or Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows).

You can change the following frame attributes:

Use this frame attribute

To do this

Size

Change the size of the frame. See Resizing frames for more information.

URL

Specify the URL for the Web page you want displayed in the frame. Use the Browse Files button to quickly choose a file to display in the frame. Use the pop-up menu next to the URL field to choose the URL of a recent Web page or anchor to display in the frame.

Name

Specify a name for the frame. You need to specify a frame's name in the Link Editor when you want the target Web page of a link displayed in the frame.

Scrollbars

Specify whether the frame has a scrollbar or not. Choose Always if you want the frame to have a scrollbar, Never if you don't want the frame to have a scrollbar, or Auto if you want the frame to have a scrollbar when the Web page displayed in the frame is larger than the frame itself.

Margin Width

Specify how far you want the Web page displayed in the frame indented from the sides of the frame. You can specify any amount from 0-100 pixels.

Margin Height

Specify how far you want the Web page displayed in the frame indented from the top and bottom of the frame. You can specify any amount from 0-100 pixels.

Fixed Size

Select if you don't want the viewer to be able to resize the frame. Leave unselected if you want the viewer to be able to resize the frame.

Extra HTML

Add other HTML attributes to a frame. (This is an advanced feature that requires knowledge of HTML; it specifies additional parameters for the <FRAME> tag. For more information, see Working with HTML and Java applets.)

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Using the Frame List Object Editor

To open the Frame List Object Editor, double-click the border of a frame list.

To expand the Frame List Object Editor to display more options, click the triangle or click the Both tab.

To apply the changes you make to a frame list in the Frame List Object Editor, press Tab or Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows).

You can change the following frame list attributes:

Use this frame list attribute

To do this

Size

Change the size of the frame list. See Resizing frames for more information.

Direction

Change the orientation of the frames within a frame. Choose Vertical to change horizontal frames in a frame list into vertical frames. Choose Horizontal to change vertical frames in a frame list into horizontal frames.

Extra HTML

Add other HTML attributes to a frame list. (This is an advanced feature that requires knowledge of HTML; it specifies additional parameters for the <FRAMESET> tag. For more information, see Working with HTML and Java applets.)

Moving frames

If your frame layout document contains multiple frames, you can move them from one location to another using the mouse. Simply drag the frame you want to move to its new location within the frame layout document.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Resizing frames

You can resize a frame in your frame layout document using the Frame Object Editor. You can also resize frame lists using the Frame List Object Editor.

To resize a frame or frame list:

  1. Double-click the frame or frame list border to open its Object Editor.
  2. Choose an option from the Size pop-up menu.

    Select this

    To have the frame or frame list sized like this

    Percent

    The frame or frame list dimensions are the specified percentage of the frame layout document.

    Pixels

    The frame or frame list is the specified amount of pixels tall if it has a horizontal orientation or the specified amount of pixels wide if it has a vertical orientation.

    Stars

    The frame or frame list uses all of the remaining space in the frame layout document. For example, if you have two frames, and you set the first frame to 40 percent and the second frame to Stars, the second frame uses the remaining 60 percent of the document. If more than one frame in a document has the Stars size attribute, the remaining space is divided up between them proportionately based on the value in the Size text box.

  3. Type the number of pixels or percent for the frame or frame list's size (if you selected Stars, you don't need to enter a value) in the Size text box.
  4. Press Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows).

Tip You can also resize a frame or frame list using the mouse. Place the pointer over the border of the frame or frame list until it changes into a double-headed arrow. Then drag the frame or frame list border to its new position.

The following feature is only available in the complete version of Claris Home Page 2.0. When you're ready to upgrade, choose How To Upgrade from the Help menu.

Associating your frames with Web pages

Once you are finished adding frames to your frame layout document, you need to associate each and every frame with a Web page. If you already associated all of your frames with a Web page when you set up your frames with the Frame Wizard, skip this procedure.

To associate frames with Web pages:

  1. Double-click the frame to open the Frame Object Editor.
  2. Use the Browse Files button, the URL pop-up menu, or simply type the URL of the Web page you want displayed in the frame in the URL text box to associate a Web page with the frame.
  3. Press Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows).

    The URL of the Web page appears in the frame.

  4. Select each of the other frames in your document and repeat steps 2 and 3 to associate them with Web pages.
  5. Save the document.

Tip You can also drag a Web page file icon from the desktop or an anchor icon from a Web page onto a frame to associate the frame with that Web page. In addition, you can Control-click (Macintosh) or right-click the frame and choose Browse from the pop-up menu to associate the frame with a Web page.

Important Be sure to associate all of the frames in your document with a Web page.

Using links in frames

When a viewer clicks a link in a frame, the target page appears in the frame and the original page containing the link disappears.

If you want to keep the original page that contains the link in the frame, you must specify a different frame to display the target page. This is useful for displaying a table of contents for a Web page in one frame, and the actual Web page in another.

To specify a different frame to display target Web pages:

  1. Associate the Web page that contains the links with a frame in your frame layout document and save the document. (For more information on associating a Web page with a frame, see Associating your frames with Web pages.)
  2. Select the frame where you want the target Web pages displayed.
  3. In the Frame Object Editor, type or choose a URL for the first Web page you want viewers to see before they activate a link in the other frame.
  4. Type a name for the target frame in the Name text box. (If necessary, click the triangle or click the Both tab to expand the Frame Object Editor.)

    You use this name to associate the link with the frame later.

  5. Press Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows) and save the frame layout document.
    The name of the frame appears in the frame.

    Open the Web page containing the links in Edit Page mode.

    Tip If you haven't created the links in the Web page yet, use this shortcut. Choose Document Options from the Edit menu, choose Advanced from the pop-up menu or tab, and type the name of the target frame that you specified in step 3 in the Default Target Frame text box (Macintosh) or the Default Target Frame text box (Windows). Now all of the links you create in the Web page will automatically reference the target frame.

  6. Select the first link and open the Link Editor. (Choose Show Link Editor from the Window menu or click the Link Editor button in the basic toolbar.)
  7. Type the name that you gave the frame in step 4 in the Target Frame text box. (If necessary, click the triangle or click the Both tab to expand the Frame Object Editor.)
  8. Press Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows).
  9. Repeat these steps to change the other links in the Web page.
  10. Save the Web page.